When the term “plastic surgery” pops up, many would assume rhinoplasty, tummy tucks, and breast augmentations. Have you ever thought your pelvis could also become more beautiful on the surgery bed, however?

Professor Daniel Yougun Won

Professor Daniel Yougun Won원유건 of the Harvard Medical School Orthopedic Trauma Initiative had been exploring this concept since late 2014 while he was an assistant professor at Konyang University Hospital건양대병원 in Daejeon. When he started his research fellowship exchange program in Boston, he introduced the idea to his two principal investigators (PI) from Harvard Medical School and they agreed another medical breakthrough was about to take place.

“Pelvic bone traumas are very difficult to handle in most countries, including Korea, because very few surgeons can perform pelvic bone modifications, such as heavy bone fractures, let alone in the beauty genre,” Professor Wu said in a recent interview with Korea Biomedical Review.

While researching, Wu came across two female patients who had the same body mass index (BMI), similar weight and height, but their figures couldn’t be more different. One patient had a perfect hourglass figure, while the other’s lack of curvature was prominent, to the point where it was considered manly.

Professor Won Yu-kwon explains about pelvic bone surgery to create an hourglass body figure, at his office at Konyang University Hospital, Daejeon, during an interview with Korea Biomedical Review.

“We often confuse the ratios between our waist and thigh width because our waist width is higher than our pelvis bone,” the professor said. “My team and I often discuss the differences between Caucasian and Asian women, and we concurred that because Western women’s pelvic width is larger than their thigh width, they often give the illusion of long legs as their waistline seems higher.”

Previous techniques to make the waist ratio bigger included Botox, fillers, or silicone implants onto the lateral side of the thigh muscles. All of these techniques involved soft-tissue manipulation. Their disadvantages included widening the patient’s thigh width that makes their legs look shorter, and not giving a firm fixation.

Professor Won’s concept is a skeletal modification, which would provide better waist and hip ratio for an ideal hourglass body figure using customized implants.

“Like South American doctors who perform buttock augmentation, we believed we could give an additional option to the plastic cosmetic market. While Asian and Western women have different opinions of their ideal beauty types, our procedure can grow to an independent market for widening pelvic bones,” he said.

To widen the pelvic bone, Wu started the process with a 3D printer to create the “pelvic osteoplasty” – the first skeletal aesthetic technique used to create a customized hourglass figure. Small incisions will be made on the lower back (posterior superior iliac spine) to hide the scars with clothes, undermining the muscles to create a tunnel for the implant. The implants will be drilled with 3.5-mm cancellous screw fixations onto the surface of the iliac crest- the curved ridge at the top of the pelvic bone.

“We call this the Minimal Invasive Plate Osteosynthesis (MIPO) to extend the pelvic width,” Wu said. “The only incision we must be careful is to avoid the superior cluneal nerves.”

Asked if the procedure is available to the public at the moment, Wu confirmed that it is still experimental. “Our commercialized implant is almost ready for the clinical use, and the review of the regulations is done. We will officially launch the procedure next March, and we have a waiting list for a lot of patients willing to be the first subject,” he said.

Wu noted that one of the good indications for this technique is the male-to-female transgender who have the desire to have a female figure, but his ideal target market is for anyone who wants an ideal hip/waist ratio.

The procedure takes less than an hour under general anesthesia, and patients can be discharged after a few hours. Side effects of this surgery would be minor common surgical complications, including pain, infection, loosing of the implant and minimal decrease of the sensation of surgical site which usually recovers. The cost for the implant is $4,500, and hospital fee is $10,000, including anesthesia and other supplies.

“After surgery, you can immediately walk, or even run,” Wu said. “But we advise staying away from the water by avoiding swimming or taking baths for a week. Patients don’t even need to worry about pregnancy affected by the procedure.”